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Till now I have been told I was good for a (...insert your number here...), or being asked if I'm not fake.

I am never on prime time so I can't really damage the high profile games that much to get that much negative attention.

I want to keep balance of improving my comm skills (by mostly failure) and fun that others get (resign if I fell my or my teams disinterest).

I am trying to figure out multitasking of controlling everything from F3 view and then some commands while flying, and those skills comes not depending of my knowledge about different core stats and changes.

If I feel I am not needed as a potential ally or competitive opponent I might as well leave this game now, because without proper team play this game is not fun. Same reason why I quit playing LoL. I don't think this will be a necessary thing as I can do some things like scouting and basic O or D and get best possible results with my current skills, and sometimes I get a cookie for it.

It took me less than half a year to be able to compete in math competitions, I hope I can bring same pace to Allegiance.

what roy is trying to say is that you want to command against someone of your level of skill. hsharp gave you a pretty good overview to your original question regarding tech path's strengths and weaknesses.

everyone learns differently, we arent here to hinder you or to force you to learn a specific way. i found commanding to be very helpful for learning because it gave me a different perspective as to why i needed to probe certain sectors or a certain way. when you command, you will often find yourself wishing that your pilots wouldnt do something like fly ahead of the con too much and leave it alone, etc. so that in turn makes you into a better pilot because you wont do that yourself.

but the real catch here is that the other half of commanding is not even in the details pertaining to the game itself. it's great that you know what the counters to enemy tech are or if you have superior knowledge on faction differences and core differences that might eek out some slight advantage over the enemy but imho, commanding is really mostly about how to get the team to listen to you and to constantly entice them to do your bidding w/o sounding like you are ordering them around randomly. that's the real hard part... to be able to juggle the team's cheerleading while making strategic decisions on what to do next and at the same time launching to nan a miner to keep it from dying.

because so many things are at stake when you command and because everyone will inevitably blame you (the leader) when things go wrong, you should take special care when you command vs someone who might seek to elevate their own status by stepping on yours.

Fwiffo has me pretty much where I'm trying to explain.

TAKE THE FOLLOWING WITH A GRAIN OF SALT!

(and if you can't handle people bitching don't fraking join the army btw)
Vazix here's a prime example why you should never command any time soon;

Last game (and all games I've recalled seeing you play in), I'm the only one on a team of 10 that is probing.

I don't care if we lose the game, because I fraking get off my ass and win it by probing.

The lack of you even doing something REAL SIMPLE like probing, shows me contempt for your ability as a player, not as a person.


Don't take it personal, a lot of experienced players (remember the game i just mentioned) like you and the other 7 pilots and the comm weren't aware that we almost lost the game a billion times because no one except me probed, even when I showed my contempt to everyone by telling them every time my probe spotted their con or htt that "i just won the game".

So a commander such as yourself that won't get probing done as a pilot leaves me only even more contempt with their ability as a comm to win.


They are lazy, unintelligent, and incompetent.


So I guess I've done all I can to help you, polite suggestions failed, neutral pokes failed, insulting you failed, and smaking you with this post probably fails.


I do hope you continue to improve as a pilot, and that you enjoy alleg.

Thank you for your kind advices.

I have a couple of questions (3 parts mainly):

Is it important to fill the details of my Forum profile? Do something outside the actual game (besides asking/searching for information about in-game related topics) that involves other players? I know this is not necessary for actual playing and I also guess squads meet outside game to discuss too.

Flying, how does it work? I heard terms like side thrusters rotational thrusters and all these things, but if I use vector lock, I can go with the same speed (correct me if I'm wrong) at any angle. If I'm going forward at a maximum speed A, and then use side thrusters to go right at the speed B, the sum of speeds at X and Y axis would be square root from A^2 + B^2 thus moving at a speed greater then the maximum speed A. (In atmosphere you change direction because wings force your craft to move only forward). I think that understanding of how this works would help me to learn to fly better.

Situational awareness or what should I do next?
I've found out that a fully prox-loaded scout can prox an aleph for almost as long as miners mine a sector or make one mining session (I can't recall the actual race I did that with). I'm just wondering if this is a pilot efficient strategy for defense. I will have this question topic filled up more after I have a few games this evening using the advice I've got.

Vazix wrote:QUOTE (Vazix @ Apr 13 2012, 06:23 PM) Is it important to fill the details of my Forum profile? ...

Important, no, but the longer you're around the more involvement you get with the community, so some people also get involved in other games and projects based on similar interests.

Vazix wrote:QUOTE (Vazix @ Apr 13 2012, 06:23 PM) Flying, how does it work? I heard terms like side thrusters rotational thrusters and all these things, but if I use vector lock, I can go with the same speed (correct me if I'm wrong) at any angle.

Vector lock will slow you down from your normal maximum speed.

Forward thrusting will allow you to keep an over-speed (such as from being rammed or after boosting or reloading fuel) longer, since you normally start to decel to your maximum speed quicker without forward thrust. Other thrusters are important for close in dogfighting, though slow you down to various degrees.

Vazix wrote:QUOTE (Vazix @ Apr 13 2012, 06:23 PM) Situational awareness or what should I do next?

It's something that most players develop in time (and at various rates and skill).

Probe. Seriously, so important. Never ever should a bomber be uneyed for long.

Grab a scout, set for miner offence, fly around, check things out, SCOUT, grab cash, check rocks, make sure you have a sanc/resuce probe as much as possible. Bring a friend, too many clueless voobs are flying ints/fighters hunting miners (but not knowing where they are, how to find them, or being able to see them from lack of probes), bring a buddy along in your journies.

DEPROBE! I swear people that constantly fly past enemy probes because they are too lazy to destroy them should be booted more often.

Vazix wrote:QUOTE (Vazix @ Apr 13 2012, 06:23 PM) I've found out that a fully prox-loaded scout can prox an aleph for almost as long as miners mine...

It's helpful, though most miners are actually going to mine longer than you can prox, a better idea is to be on the other side of the aleph (even with low sig) spot the approach, duck back into mining sector, and prox based on their speed and range. Personally unless I'm prox-camping I tend to be equidistant to the miners and prepare to deal with incoming threats... your well timed reactions are usually better than anyone that isn't in/viewing that sector.

On flying: The sidethrusters work by redirecting your main engine thrust. Therefore you can't get more speed by activating sidethrusters. Most ships lose half their thrust from redirecting, which is why you can't travel as fast to the side. Interceptors are a notable exception in that they can move in any direction without losing thrust. Vector lock keeps you moving in the same direction as efficiently as possible with your ship's thrusters. You WILL lose speed if you start at max then turn lock and turn around, it's just slow.

Proxing the aelph to your mining sector is one of the best things you can do...in a large game. The value of a pilot changes based on game size. In general though, if it's 5v5 or more, the enemy has a base adjacent to your miners, and there's only one way the enemy would go through, proxing might be a good idea. Or at least the comm probably won't boot you.

Miner defense is rather complicated. If you can shoot down an enemy pilot solo, that's a great way to defend. If the enemy is going in groups of five, and you're the only defender, nanning will give your team another few seconds to come help. If you see the enemy coming, send your miners back to base, and shout for help, that will save a LOT of seconds. If you prox all five ints, there's no need for extra defense. There are many ways to defend miners. But, as to your question, 90s of prox will go a long way. Keep in mind that many miners take more time to finish a rock, depending on faction.

QUOTE If I'm going forward at a maximum speed A, and then use side thrusters to go right at the speed B, the sum of speeds at X and Y axis would be square root from A^2 + B^2 thus moving at a speed greater then the maximum speed A.[/quote]
If you use sidethrusters, the "A" component of your velocity will decrease. You cannot use sidethrusters to go faster than max velocity.

Sidethrusters are almost exclusively used for evading enemy fire.

QUOTE I'm just wondering if this is a pilot efficient strategy for defense.[/quote]
It often is.

RoyBrown wrote:QUOTE (RoyBrown @ Apr 12 2012, 01:40 PM) So I guess I've done all I can to help you, polite suggestions failed, neutral pokes failed, insulting you failed, and smaking you with this post probably fails.

Please remember that the New Pilots Forum is for encouragement and instruction. Insulting isn't necessary.

When you had played the game for less than a month, did you know when to start probing? Don't answer -- rhetorical question aimed at the masses, not you specifically.

TheAlaskan wrote:QUOTE (TheAlaskan @ Apr 13 2012, 07:31 PM) Please remember that the New Pilots Forum is for encouragement and instruction. Insulting isn't necessary.

When you had played the game for less than a month, did you know when to start probing? Don't answer -- rhetorical question aimed at the masses, not you specifically.

Those comments were in general, shoe fitting is optional, point taken regardless.

The tutorials that state that you need to find all alephs early is not the case I find in most games.
While probing and scouting sectors near build bases or scouting ahead of a con is very important, I'm quite surprised I have to spend a lot of time finding everything in every sector when it could be done in 4 minutes if 2 more scouts did that. Also while doing that I can't probe every sector too. Staying near a base is good, but having a teleporter magically appear in a nearby sector is a surprise I think is best avoided. After 10 or so minutes into the game eventually everything is mostly discovered and probes are good for countering bomb runs and stuff.

EDIT: Am I thinking the right way here?

Good probes rewarded me with the ability to prox enemy bomb run with 4 escorting ints. It didn't kill them all, but it made the job for the aleph campers more much easier. Let's cmon probe